


The Emotional Consequences of Post Finale Reunions

by cowboylakay



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Love Confessions, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29062059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cowboylakay/pseuds/cowboylakay
Summary: Three years later, on a very unremarkable day, Abed shows up at Jeff’s apartment.
Relationships: Abed Nadir/Jeff Winger
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	The Emotional Consequences of Post Finale Reunions

It was three years before Abed saw Jeff again.

He looks healthy and happy. The haunted look in his eyes when Abed left is gone, replaced with a more content glow. He’s still as large as ever, broad and overpowering in presence, and he’d started wearing tighter shirts that clung to his body, where Abed could see the outline of a soft belly. His eyes are still the same shade of dark blue that he’d fallen in love with so many years ago, surrounded by crow’s feet that crinkle even when he’s not smiling.

Jeff is shocked to see him, embracing him almost instantly after he realises Abed’s really standing there. His door swings a little further inwards when he hugs Abed, a warm, encompassing feeling that settles in his core. He’s missed this; the way Jeff holds Abed like he’s something to cherish, the warmth that settles like a blanket over them, the way they fit  _ just _ right into each other. He missed all of this, but most of all, he missed Jeff.

Back when he first left Greendale, Abed wanted to tell Jeff everything. He wanted to tell him how much he loved him, how he couldn’t see himself with anyone but him, and how he needed Jeff to say  _ yes _ when Abed invites him to go to California with him. He’d wanted so many things, and before he could have any of them, he swallowed his words, said goodbye to Jeff, and gotten on a plane to Los Angeles.

He wonders how different their lives would be if he’d told Jeff about how he felt.

“Abed...” Jeff whispers, like he’s still not really believing he’s here. It feels a touch above dramatic, considering Abed was only ever a few states away, not countries or worlds away, and that he’d send Jeff and the rest of the group updates every now and then, but it feels different when it’s just the two of them like this.

“Hey, Jeff,” Abed whispers back, head tucked into Jeff’s shoulder. They hold each other for what feels like forever, until Jeff seems to catch himself and they dislodge, with him shutting the door as Abed drops his bag off to the side.

“Come, uh, sit, and we can talk,” Jeff tells him, a strange note in his voice as he leads Abed to the living room. It feels a little more lived in, which Abed unfairly finds himself suspicious about. In all the years he’d known Jeff, he was never one to decorate his apartment. “Do you want a drink?”

“Oh, just water, thanks,” Abed responds, looking around the living room. There’s a framed picture of their study group from before Troy left, a final picture of all of them together before they began going their separate ways. His heart warms at the sight, even more when he finds a little cube that looks too familiar to be anyone but his. “You kept this?” He finds himself asking, looking at the fidget cube and pressing the clicker.

He hears Jeff pour water into a glass from the kitchen, then his socked footsteps padding across the carpeted floor. “Oh, yeah, I did,” Jeff says, trying hard to sound casual but missing by a long shot, not because he’s a bad actor, but because he’s never been too good at hiding anything from Abed. “You left it here before you left, so I kept it. I just thought, maybe...”

Abed puts the cube back on the shelf and turns to look at him, where Jeff is just searching his face as if he could finish his sentence for him. Abed steps a little closer, taking the glass and holding it as he looked at Jeff, really looked at him. “Maybe, what?” Abed asks softly.

Jeff looks away for a moment, swallows, then looks back at Abed. This time, he seems to be the one unable to hold eye contact. “Maybe you’d come back, and you’d want it back.”

Whatever restraint Abed had before then crumbles, eyes prickling with tears as he holds Jeff’s cheek with his free hand. He can see Jeff’s own wet eyes and his hopeful expression, his own face likely mirroring it. “Can I kiss you, Jeff?” He asks, setting the water down on the shelf behind him, next to the cube, not taking his eyes off of Jeff for even a second.

“Please,” Jeff croaks, then he’s leaning in and meeting Abed halfway, kissing each other for the first time. Somehow, even though they’d never done this before, it’s familiar and comfortable, and it’s just everything he’s ever hoped for. He feels wetness on his cheeks that he’s not sure are Jeff’s tears or his own, but he finds himself uncaring as he wraps his arms around Jeff’s neck and pulls him in.

They break apart for air and realise then that it had been both of their tears, looking at each other with red-rimmed eyes. Abed laughs a little, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve as he wipes the tears from Jeff’s cheeks with his thumbs, both hands now resting there. Jeff presses a kiss against Abed’s hand, a gesture so minor yet so gentle that Abed can’t help but press another kiss to Jeff’s lips.

“Please,” Jeff whispers against him, eyes locked with his as he presses his forehead against his, “never leave me again, ever.”

Abed nods his head, pulling him into a hug that has him on his tip-toes so he can pull Jeff’s head onto his shoulder. “Never again.”

They sit down a few moments later, after Abed stands back to his normal height and Jeff holds his hand even though they were only parting to sit down on his couch. Neither of them seem too keen on not touching each other, which Abed thinks is more than justified. He also thinks it’s justified when he follows Jeff as he sits sideways and settles against Jeff’s chest, almost laying on him. Their hands are still locked together even through the positional changes.

“Why’d you come visit?” Jeff asks him after a while, his hand in Abed’s hair as he pets it. It’s longer and curlier than when he last saw it, something that Jeff appreciates. Abed lays his cheek comfortably against Jeff’s chest. “Not that I didn’t want you to, of course, I was just... thinking.”

“I know,” Abed says, smiling a little as Jeff fumbles. He’s changed in appearance, but he’s still pretty much the same Jeff he remembers. “Things are going really great with me in L.A. I’ve been getting good deals, and I’m in the middle of shooting my second feature film. I even got to meet Robert de Niro.”

“That’s really good, Abed, I’m happy for you,” Jeff tells him, a pleasantly surprised proudness in his tone. “But that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“It didn’t have you,” He says, looking up when he does. Jeff looks at him with wide eyes, the same ones Abed can lose himself in forever. “Everything in L.A. was good but... it didn’t have you. I always knew all along that I’d come crawling back to you, but I was hoping...”

Jeff’s grip on Abed’s hand loosens, only so he could cup Abed’s cheeks with both hands. “Hoping for what?” He asks, eyes focused on Abed’s nose and lips.

“That you’d go back with me,” Abed gets out, the words a heavy weight against his tongue. He rushes to explain, “I know you’re still working at Greendale, and I know you’ve never left Colorado, so I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything, obviously you can say no, I was just thinking I—”

Jeff cuts him off with a kiss that Abed melts into immediately, sighing quietly into it as Jeff licks into his mouth and bites at Abed’s bottom lip. They don’t get any more heated than that as Jeff stops them before anything more, still holding Abed’s cheeks in his hands. “Yes.”

Abed takes a moment to catch up to the fact that Jeff had said something. “Yes?”

“Yes, I’ll move with you to Los Angeles,” Jeff clarifies, now looking at Abed in the eyes. “I’ve spent too long wondering what it would’ve been like if I asked to come with you when you first left, and I spent even longer wondering why I felt so much for you that it hurt me deeper than anything to know that you were leaving and I wasn’t going to be with you.” He smiles then, a smile that speaks of healing hurt. “I know what I want now, and I know that I’m not ready to waste any more time on wishing when I could be having.”

“You’ll really...” Abed trails off, before it all clicks in his head. He grins so hard his cheeks hurt, and he presses so many little kisses all over Jeff’s face, from the corners of his lips to his nose to the crow’s feet that crinkle as he smiles. “Thank you,” Abed breathes out, shocked even as he kisses Jeff’s brow, _“_ _Thank _ you.”

“I was kind of hoping for this,” Jeff admits to him, smile so bright and sweet that Abed can’t get enough of looking at it. “That you would swoop in one day and ask me to go with you. I’m just sorry it took us three years to get to this point.”

“It’s been more than that for me,” Abed tells him, kissing him on the chin even as the stubble scratches his lips. “I think I’ve wanted you since we first met,” Abed punctuates this with a kiss to Jeff’s cheek, “and I think I’ve needed you since second year.”

Jeff stares at him for a moment before he laughs, confusing Abed for a moment before he says, “I think I’ve been into you since that first day, even when I was trying to hit on Britta,” He says, intercepting Abed’s next kiss with his own lips, catching him in a real one that lasts any time between five seconds and eternity. “In terms of needing you... I think I’ve needed you before I even  _ knew _ you.”

“You big sap,” Abed says shakily, overwhelmed by emotion as he kisses him again, as if he couldn’t get enough of him. Jeff goes willingly, allowing himself to be straddled as Abed leads them both.

Some pulling, moaning, and touching later, they both help in cleaning each other up, bereft of most of their clothes save for their underwear and Jeff’s socks. Even as sweat clings to their skin, Abed finds himself unable to fully rip himself away from Jeff, wanting to be as close to him as possible as if to make up for time they wasted tip-toeing around each other.

“This day turned out a lot better than I expected,” Abed tells him, when their dirtied clothes are tossed to the side and they’ve cooled down enough that their skins don’t feel hot to the touch. They’re in a reverse of their position before, with Abed bracketing Jeff this time as Jeff plays with his hand. “I thought you wouldn’t want to come with me, or that you’d started seeing someone else, or... that you wouldn’t want to see me.”

Jeff brings his hand up to his lips, kissing the middle knuckle gently, almost reverently. “I don’t think there’s anyone else on this rock that I’d want to be with than you,” He says, the post-orgasmic bliss loosening his tongue. “‘People who want to be together will always end up together. It’s a matter of loyalty, courage, and love. Even cybernetic men can feel those, if you try hard enough.’”

Abed turns to him in shock, eyes wider than ever before. “You didn’t—?”

“I did,” Jeff says, laughing at Abed’s awestruck expression. His smile softens when he says, “I had a lot of lonely nights, and a lot more nights where I missed you. Watching  _ Kickpuncher _ was as close as I felt to you, sometimes.”

“I love you,” Abed blurts out, unable to stop himself as he stares into Jeff’s eyes. Jeff’s smile splits into a large grin that’s all teeth, and he leans upwards to kiss Abed. The angle is uncomfortable, and they’re both a little tired, but neither of them complain too much about it.

A few beats later, Abed says, “Did you also watch—”

_“ _Yes_ , _ Abed, I watched Cougar Town and Inspector Spacetime. It was a long three years, and I had a lot of lonely nights,” Jeff reiterates, suddenly bashful even as Abed kisses his face again. Then, he turns enough so he can plant a kiss on Abed’s chest, and says, “Hopefully, I won’t have too many of those lonely nights anymore.”

Abed seems content with the response, pulling Jeff closer to his chest. He almost starts dozing off before he hears Jeff whisper, in a voice so quiet he’s not sure he was meant to hear, “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> the pros of abed’s favourite movie series being fictional is i can write whatever quote i want and play it off as “canon”
> 
> i’m [lakay](https://cowboylakay.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


End file.
